When a package arrived from ASUS unannounced and unexpected last week, my heart skipped a beat. Tearing open the box in a gibbering frenzy, I was greeted by one of ASUS’ latest laptops — the N82.
One of the key features of the N82 — and indeed other models in the N line-up — is USB 3.0 connectivity. The N82′s support for USB 3.0 is hard to miss, given the little patch of telltale blue that peeks out at you from the side of the laptop, clamouring for attention.
I responded to its siren call, and pulled out all the stops to obtain a USB 3.0 hard disk drive so that I could put it through its paces.
Here’s what happened next.
Apart from the Blu-ray movie transfer test, I also transferred two other sets of files:
- Three hundred 4288 x 2848 JPEG photos, weighing a total of 1GB
- Ninety MP3 tracks encoded at 192kpbs, coming in at 524MB in total
The results were similarly impressive:
| USB 3.0 | USB 2.0 | |
| Blu-ray movie (30.6GB) | 5 mins 37 secs | 17 mins 57 secs |
| 300 JPEG photos (1GB) | 15 secs | 42 secs |
| 90 MP3 tracks (524MB) | 8 secs | 20 secs |
The difference in transfer speeds between USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 was simply quite staggering, enough to convince me that purchasing a new laptop just for USB 3.0 support was a worthy enough reason in itself.
So if you’re a multimedia aficionado, or dabble heavily in storage-intensive activities such as video production, a USB 3.0-equipped laptop like the N82 is an absolute must-have.
Related Articles
-
greg
-
Moebius
-
John
-
http://twitter.com/hey_sid Sid Ghodke